The health benefits of exercise are well known and applicable to all ages of individuals, including cardiovascular improvement, muscle strengthening, stretching, increased blood circulation, better coordination, sharper motor abilities, flexible joint mobility, bone health, general overall wellness, and the like. One problem as an individual typically moves from being a child to being an adult, their physical activity levels decline just when maintaining good health is at its most important as an individual ages, typically their exercise levels decline that can work against maintaining good health, thus just when an individual should be exercising and being active, their exercise and activity levels tend to decrease.
Children are normally active in going places (i.e. walking or riding a bike), playing active games in their spare time, such as football, soccer, baseball, tag, hide and seek, and the like, plus being in school children are also active in physical education classes and after school hours sports leagues. Thus as children we are normally plenty active and in the best of health due to our young age. However, as we become adults, societal norms tend to drive us into a much more sedentary lifestyle, for instance by having a car, we tend to walk very little, nor ride a bicycle much, and as an office worker we tend to sit at a desk for long periods of time, sit in meetings, sit on airplanes, and then go out for high fat and calorie content meals at high end restaurants, thus as a result most adults tend to gain weight by consuming more calories coupled with a lower activity lifestyle, just when our bodies should be in better shape to compensate for aging we typically get in worse shape.
Although the benefits of exercise especially for adults are acknowledged by most everyone for weight control, maintaining agility, preventing diabetes, preventing joint stain from excessive body weight, preventing higher various internal organ workloads (especially the heart) from excessive body weight, and so on, few adults are active enough to maintain even a recommended weight, typically being only about one-fourth of the adult population is not overweight, thus an overwhelming majority of adults are overweight. So the question to ask is, why don't the majority of adults exercise especially if the health benefits are widely known?
One probable answer is that available time and convenience are a problem for engaging in an exercise program, as most adults have a full time job, a family, and other interests that all together consume most of an adult's time, this is in addition to boredom and the constant obligation of regular exercise placed upon an individual's time. Wherein, even the adults who engage in exercise programs, especially after new years in January—typically lose interest in a short amount of time, wherein this “petering-out” of individual's exercise program is acerbated by the long term slow rate of actual physical shape (endurance, strength, and appearance) improvement. Thus, a potentially helpful solution is to minimize the time, boredom, and convenience obstacles to allow for an exercise program to be more possible for a working adult on a long term basis.
In looking at the prior art in this area of exercise machines that attempt make exercise or physical rehabilitation easier, more effective, involving additional muscles, or less strenuous, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,923 to Vatti disclosed is an apparatus and methods for enhanced exercises and back pain relief, thus helping to decrease exercise boredom and increase comfort. People suffering from back pain in Vatti would be able to use the apparatus more effectively to relieve the pain. This apparatus in Vatti can also be used by common users for strengthening and stretching exercises that conventional exercising equipment such as treadmills do not provide. Combinations of a general frame in Vatti along with multiple attachments form an effective exercising apparatus. The user of the Vatti apparatus shifts weight from the spine or lower back to the hands while performing exercises.
Wherein, an ordinary upright user position causes more stress on the lower back and the weight of the upper body in motion may make the situation worse, say for instance on a typical treadmill. By suitable placement of hands and selectively distributing upper body weight to hands in Vatti, the user would be able to control the amount of weight reduction on the lower back or spine as needed to achieve the best results and comfort. Basically, Vatti combined a conventional treadmill with a number of attachments for exercising a user's arms and legs for additional exercises plus having upper body support while on the treadmill, however, not teaching any specifics related to adjustment or criterion setting, i.e. amount of upper body support.
Continuing in this area of exercise machine prior art, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,560 to Svendsen, et al., disclosed is a therapeutic bilateral weight unloading apparatus which suspends a user to support a selected portion the user's weight while reducing and dampening both vertical and lateral forces that are exerted on the user while standing or exercising. The apparatus in Svendsen, et al., suspends the user between two independently supported boom arms, with the independent action of the boom arms gently counter balances the user's natural weight shifts to reduce and dampen both the vertical and lateral forces exerted on the suspended user while standing or exercising, thus the dampening is applied to the entire user's body from a torso stabilizing harness.
The unloading apparatus Svendsen, et al., includes a frame and two pivoting boom arms that are independently supported by two gas compression springs with the user being completely suspended between the boom arms by a body harness. The boom arms Svendsen, et al., are pivotally connected to a vertically adjustable gantry frame extensibly mounted to a base frame, which allows the boom arms to be raised and lowered. The gas springs Svendsen, et al., provide the upward suspension force used to support a selected portion of the user's weight, further one end of the gas springs is connected to a slide collar shiftably mounted to each of the boom arms. Each slide collar Svendsen, et al., can be selectively positioned along the length of the boom arm to adjust the suspension force for each boom arm, in addition, the base frame may be fitted with casters, which allows the apparatus to be moved by the suspended user, see column 1, lines 43-67.
Svendsen et al., has disadvantages in requiring a user fitted unique harness, plus the discomfort from heavy physical activity, i.e. sweating/chaffing while the user is in the harness, as basically Svendsen, et al., is specifically designed for the user who needs total vertical support while on a treadmill for instance, in other words the user could completely collapse in Svendsen, et al., apparatus and still be completely suspended above the treadmill. Also, as in Vatti, there is no teaching in Svendsen, et al., related to adjustment or criterion setting, i.e. amount of upper body support.
Continuing in this prior art area in U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,561 to Lynch being configured similar to Svendsen et al., Lynch discloses an apparatus for whole user body suspension assisted ambulation to provide a vertically moveable gantry frame in conjunction with a treadmill with attachment points on the gantry frame which allow attachment of an upper-body harness so as to suspend a person so that the person can ambulate with less than gravitational weight on their lower extremities. The exercising device in Lynch comprises a treadmill, a vertical support frame affixed to such treadmill, a gantry frame pivotally attached to the vertical support frame, and an upper-body harness suspended from solid gantry frame; see column 2, lines 47-68. Pneumatic linear actuators are pivotally connected to Lynch in the vertical support frame and the gantry frame and regulated air pressure may be introduced into the pneumatic linear actuators to effect a rotational movement to the gantry frame in relation to the support frame and thus exert an upward force on the upper-body harness.
The magnitude of the vertical force in Lynch exerted on the upper-body harness is a function of the regulated air pressure. By regulating the air pressure in Lynch the user/operator can vary the uplift force applied to meet the requirements of each subject so that individuals who only need to be stabilized can ambulate with near full weight on their feet and where individuals who cannot tolerate full weight on a lower extremity joint may have the joint load reduced by a substantial percentage of their body weight. The use of air pressure in Lynch to actuate the upper-body suspension system allows it to instantly adjust to the vertical translational excursion of the body that occurs during ambulation and thus preclude oscillating shocks being induced to the user.
The control in Lynch of the various parameters of the machine, (belt speed, uplift force, and time) are preferably controlled, monitored and recorded by a computer, see column 3, lines 1-28. Lynch, does finally get into some criterion for upward force on the user's body through the use of regulating air pressure, however, there is a lack of specifics as to what relationship the upward force to have to other parameters of user weight, speed, condition, support type, etc, instead there are just a set of typical or arbitrary percentages of upward force, see column 6, lines 16-36. Further, in Lynch the use of air pressure in a cylinder is not good design, as the ability hold a position of the harness and thus upward force is unreliable due to air leakage and not having a positive suspension lock, i.e. a screw block type, plus if the compressor were to fail, the user would be suddenly dropped, potentially causing injury. Note that Lynch supports the entire user's body through a torso harness also much like Svendsen et al., not allowing for a contemporaneous dampened grasp by the user.
Further continuing in this prior art area U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,502 to Kelsey, et al. again is a harness type support for the entire user's body weight, see Lynch and Svendsen et al., in Kelsey et al., disclosed is a therapeutic apparatus and method including a frame to which a winch is mounted. A spring in Kelsey, et al., is attached at one end to the winch and at the other end to a support harness; also a load cell is connected to the winch so that the winch automatically maintains a set load while the load varies back and forth from more than to less than the set load. Cables interconnect the winch, spring and harness in a preferred embodiment in Kelsey, et al. Further, the support frame in Kelsey, et al. is preferably comprised of a pair of oppositely positioned strength beams, wherein these beams are interconnected by means of a transverse support within which is an opening from which the harness cable descends so that when a user wears the harness the user is supported from the transverse support from above; see column 2, lines 6-22.
The support harness in Kelsey, et al. includes a waist encircling abdominal strap that “grasps” the user very snugly so that there is no shifting of the abdominal strap as strain is taken on the support cable, i.e. as the user is “unloaded.” A pair of arm loops in Kelsey, et al. is attached at opposite sides to the waist encircling abdominal strap and from those arm loops a corresponding pair of harness cable connectors is attached and these two connectors are attached to a single harness bar at the bar's opposite ends. The center of the bar is connected to the harness cable at the mid-point of the bar so that as the user is “unloaded,” weight is lifted evenly on both sides of the user through the encircling abdominal strap, as a result the user is lifted precisely, evenly, and accurately, see column 2, lines 37-50. Kelsey et al., through the use of a kinematic system including a magnetic clutch and low spring constant change spring attempts to have a constant upward force exerted upon the user in a physical rehab type environment, although this system would seem to have a “pogo-stick” effect by not having any dampening, i.e. constantly yanking the user up and down due to reactionary changes in the winch movement that are amplified by the clutch and spring, i.e. leading to undesirable mechanical dynamic resonance of the system that would be discomforting to the user by being continually oscillating vertically.
Nest, in the exercise machine arts for a combination of exercise movements in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,196 to Lynch discloses the dispensing of the user harness, that the previous Lynch '561 had, wherein Lynch '196 discloses a treadmill with variable upper body resistance loading to provide two, or more, sets of upper body exercising levers, in conjunction with an inclinable treadmill, each set of levers being independently moveable and with independently variable resistance from the other, note that this is resistance and not dampening, see column 1, lines 54-68. The first set of handlebars in Lynch '196 are placed at about waist height and the second set is placed at a height which would be about shoulder height or higher, furthermore, the upper set of handlebars enables the operator to lift the load by pushing in an upward position (pressing) as opposed to lifting or pulling upward which is done with the lower set of handlebars. Means in Lynch '196 are also provided to prevent the handlebars from dropping below essentially a horizontal position. In Lynch '196, hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders, springs, elastic bands or other suitable devices may be used as the resistance means and are selectively variable for both the upper and lower sets of levers independently, see column 2, lines 24-36. Primarily designed to be used in a weightless environment the multiple handlebar sets in Lynch '196 are operational to provide resistance through cylinders 60, 62, 94, and 96, however, as in Lynch '561 the exercise criterion are arbitrary as opposed to experimental relationships tied to definitive results, also there is no dampening disclosed for a grasp by the user.
There exists a need to provide an exercise apparatus that can facilitate the dynamically selective loading/unloading of the user's static and dynamic weight load force placed upon their back, legs, and feet. This would entail an added feature to a treadmill for example, however, not being limited to just a treadmill with any type of lower body portion exercise machine could be utilized as well, wherein a grasping element would be available to the user for instantaneously adjusting the load split as between their upper and lower body portions while using the exercise machine. Furthermore, it would be desirable for the grasping element to have a dampening feature to allow limited movement in a controlled manner of the grasping element to soften the impact load upon the physical skeletal structure and joints of the user's upper body portion. In summary, the primary feature would be to allow the user of the exercise machine, preferably a treadmill to use the grasping element at will and to also vary the amount of force loading split as between the user's upper and lower body portion, or to have no split in loading at all as between the upper and lower body portions, also at will.